Crypts

[Tom]

Hello!

Thos crypts that appear here and there are quite nasty.
Which ones are worthwhile (and pretty safe) to try?
And which ones should one avoid totally?
Is there a list, and what monsters they have?

[Coldbringer]

Which crypts are you referring to exactly? Do you mean Vaults that randomly occur in dungeons? Or a crypt themed dungeon?

[Tom]

Which crypts are you referring to exactly? Do you mean Vaults that randomly occur in dungeons? Or a crypt themed dungeon?

Dungeons.
Forsaken crypt etc etc

[Frumple]

In complete honesty, neither of the two major crypts (melinda, shadow) are worthwhile or safe, unless you hard cheese (strip, trigger, reequip, kill) the latter. The rewards are random and/or ho-hum, so at best you're rolling the bones on a chance to get something decent, in the face of challenges that are either one of the deadliest in the game or potentially one of the deadliest in the game.

From a survival perspective, they're not needed and not wanted. They're like a greater vault on the first level of the infinite dungeon or somethin', heh. If you're really trying hard for a win don't even consider touching them.

Any case, enemy lists are fairly short. Melinda one is elves with a great deal of casters and ogres -- lots of blight, darkness, physical damage and diseases, on top of small levels and rooms that tend to have groups in them. Shadow one is more or less anything, but templated -- extra darkness damage and wall walking, iirc, maybe something I'm forgetting -- and not the actual threat of the dungeon (you're your own worst enemy, there), the layout being small corridor maze and the enemies tending to be alone.

The second one actually tends to be trivial right up 'till the boss, at which point it's trivial if you cheese it and of difficulty variable from cakewalk to unkillable to you-get-one-shot depending on how you interact with the gimmick.

Other possibilities... maybe the elven ruins, which tend to be fine if you go in around the same point you're going into dreadfell, and has nothing but undead plus some extra undead casters or halfling ruins, which are the same sans the extra and tier 2-ish? Or ruined dungeons, which are anything but generally not that big of a deal unless something really nasty generates in the wrong place. Those three are fine, generally no more dangerous than dreadfell or daikara or whatever.

Then maybe the graveyard, which you trigger yourself... I'd probably recommend searching for the forum for previous discussion of that one, as there's been plenty. So long as you're individually triggering the graves it's usually not that big of a deal (especially if you go in low-ish level, 18-20 or so, before the nastier undead start becoming likely to generate) in my experience, but from what I've noticed they also kill a lot of people that try them, so... yeah. Rewards are also pretty sketchy if you're not a specific class, and could be considered kinda' sketchy even if you are.

... perhaps needless to say, I tend to have a go at all of them. Some are pretty good at killing you, but if I wanted to win instead of poke the raging RNG tiger for giggles there'd be a lot more victories in my vault profile. Those ones are absolutely not worth it, but can be fun.

[Coldbringer]

Frumple, do you usally play on Insane? Because on normal or nightmare those places aren't that bad if you're moderately experienced and not doing an experimental build. And a good source of picking up a few more artifacts & randarts.

To be fair, the Melinda crypt with the elven cultists can be pretty dangerous and I have had a few deaths in there. But all of my runs try and it I've only had one run end there.

[Frumple]

Heh. No, but it's been fairly consistent that even folks that play on normal or nightmare get offed pretty often by those places. Like mentioned, I usually hit the places up, myself, and as intimated they generally don't give me much trouble (unless I'm doing something silly with addons or playing extremely lazy that day, anyway), but newer folks seem to describe them as rough often enough it's worth mention. Moderately experienced probably wouldn't be asking what's in the crypts, ehehe.

... though artifact wise, the melinda crypt frankly tends to shaft me. Pretty sure I've ended up with the viper queen belt or wintertide phial or something (and nothing else) more than once. Don't personally go in there for loot, basically. Half the time I don't even bother checking with the parent for shinies, these days.

[Tom]

THX a lot for replies.

What I was after though (sry for beeing unclear) are thiose crypts in normal dungeons.
Old forest, daikara etc etc a small ladder leading down
Forsaken crypt etc etc

[Cathbald]

There are 3 different zones like that you can find, the intimidating cave, the damp cave and the forsaken crypt.

All are better left alone until you leveled up a few times, they are vicious levels that are way above your level when they spawn.

Damp cave : full of rogues and traps, with rare. You'll be perma debuff and so not able to go back upstairs.
Intimidating cave : filled with hatchlings, drake, and wyrm of one element. I've seen cold/fire/lightning/multihued but not acid/physical, they probably exist too though.
Forsaken crypt : extremely rare, you find it about once every 200-300 hours from experience. Boss is the rat lich, he is very strong and you gain an achievement for defeating him.

[Effigy]

Yeah, those are death traps in my experience. I'd say I die about 90% of the time I go in there, especially the Rat Lich zone.

[Frumple]

Oooh, those things. Never had much trouble with 'em unless something goes wonky with rare generation or there ends up being too many wyrms around a corner or somethin'. Definitely dangerous if you're even remotely skittish about taking towering spike damage to the face or being in LoS with two or three rare rogues at the same time, though.

... different way of putting it, so long as you're not far ahead of the level curve (say no more than somewhere in the 12-16 range) one of the dragon ones in old forest or daikara is probably pretty harmless. Smattering of drakes and a bunch of hatchlings at worst, generally, and iirc I've ran into the occasional one that was straight up nothing but hatchlings. Basically just fairly free gold and XP. Later you get smattering of wyrms, bunch of drakes, and occasionally wall to wall hatchling. Pretty awesome but also five or six plus dragon breaths in the same turn from time to time.

Rogue caves are basically an adventurer party ambush with mooks, rogue instead of racial chassis, and a different sort of terrain layout. So a bit harder than those, which have been known to occasionally explode a player the turn they get into line of sight of one of the classed critters. Risky, but a small place with multiple rares, which can make it pretty nice for equipment pickups.

Rat lich... don't think I've ever ran into it with a character that hadn't gone off the chain to some degree, so though I've ran into it a fair few times it's never really been rough. Struggling at the time you encounter it, you probably want to avoid it, particularly if you don't have plenty of light or infravision. Rat lich is still a lich, and any of those tossing things at you when you can't see them can get nasty.

[Coldbringer]

the bonus dungeons with undead vermin and rogues weren't too bad. It was the one with dragons that killed me. A pile of mature drakes and even wyrms in the packs, hard to reach due to the huge swarms of hatchlings in front and all the while breathing high damage regularly. As a melee character, you will probably get wrecked by it. You have to calculate how many 300+ breath attacks you can survive. If you have time to select the appropriate torque, wards, or throw on resistance gear that can make it doable.

As others have mentioned, come back at higher levels if you're really curious to try them.

[St_ranger_er]

the bonus dungeons with undead vermin and rogues weren't too bad. It was the one with dragons that killed me. A pile of mature drakes and even wyrms in the packs, hard to reach due to the huge swarms of hatchlings in front and all the while breathing high damage regularly. As a melee character, you will probably get wrecked by it. You have to calculate how many 300+ breath attacks you can survive. If you have time to select the appropriate torque, wards, or throw on resistance gear that can make it doable.

Got that dungeon on high peak on insane, 15k+ hp rare/unique dragons. Golden mine for possessors.

[mckwack]

Forsaken crypt : extremely rare, you find it about once every 200-300 hours from experience. Boss is the rat lich, he is very strong and you gain an achievement for defeating him.

.. would you believe me if I say that I found the Forsaken Crypt on one of my earliest adventure??? As in, I found it in my second or third run I believe.

Suffice it to say, I fled the vicinity immediately (I was in the teen-ish level), and since I died not long after I reach the East, I never managed to return to the crypt nor did it generate again on my subsequent adventure (but I got the Rogue caves instead).

Sorry for necro-ing this thread, just want to point out that RNG can be so RNG sometimes...

[Cathbald]

You are not contradicting me in any way, I never claimed you had to play 200h before you find it for the first time.